Today in Things That Are Stupid: Chocolate Library Not Allowed to Be Called Chocolate Library

December 10, 2010

Due to the 2006 state Business Corporation Law, Not-for-Profit Corporation Law, Partnership Law, and Limited Liability Company Law, it seems that the Chocolate Library, the recently opened chocolate store in the East Village, cannot be called the Chocolate Library. Why? Because said law forbids companies to use the word “library” — along with “kindergarten,” “school,” “academy,” and “institute” — in their names.

Per Diner’s Journal, that means that Byron Bennett, the Chocolate Library’s owner, has had to change his business’s name to Chocolate 101, which, while still quasi-scholarly, sounds more like something you’d find in a New Jersey strip mall.

Bennett is making an appeal to the State Education Department, which had initially rejected his application to incorporate his business; a spokesman for the state told the Times that they might reconsider the application. Meanwhile, the Brandy Library, Hudson Library, and Library Hotel continue to not confuse the public with their intentions.

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